10 things you need to know today

An Israeli woman takes a selfie in a buttercup field near Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak in southern Israel, just outside the Gaza Strip.Reuters/Amir CohenHere is what you need to know.

Netflix is getting destroyed on guidance. Shares of Netflix are down more than 8% ahead of the opening bell after the company issued disappointing guidance. Netflix expects second-quarter international-subscriber growth of 2 million, which was well short of the 3.45 million that Wall Street was hoping for. The news wasn't all bad as the company announced earnings of $0.06 a share, beating the $0.04 that was anticipated. Revenue surged 24.5% to $1.96 billion, matching estimates.

IBM beat. The company earned $2.35 a share, easily topping the $2.09 that was expected by the Bloomberg consensus. Revenue fell 4.6% to $18.68 billion, which was better than the $18.28 billion that analysts were hoping for. However, the first quarter marked the 16th consecutive quarter of declining revenue. IBM expects its full-year free-cash flow to be at the upper end of its $11 billion to $12 billion guidance. "IBM has established itself as the industry leader in total cloud, analytics and cognitive, all of which helped drive our strategic imperatives revenue growth at a strong double-digit rate, substantially faster than the market," IBM's chairman, president, and chief executive officer, Ginni Rometty, said.

Goldman Sachs reports. The investment bank earned an adjusted $2.68 a share, beating the $2.48 that Wall Street was expecting. Revenue of $6.34 billion was shy of the $7.11 billion Bloomberg consensus. Trading revenue tumbled 37% to $3.44 billion, which was a bit better than the $3.42 billion analysts were looking for. "The operating environment this quarter presented a broad range of challenges, resulting in headwinds across virtually every one of our businesses," CEO Lloyd Blankfein said in a statement.

China is trying to buy a big stake in Yum Brands. Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, says China Investment Corp, China's state-owned sovereign wealth fund, is backing an investor group bid to buy a majority stake in Yum Brands' China unit. According to the report, a deal could be for as much as $8 billion. If a deal were to be completed, Yum China would trade on the New York Stock Exchange and possibly the Hong Kong Exchange, the report says.

South Korea downgraded its growth forecast. The Bank of Korea held its key interest rate at 1.50% for a 10th straight month and lowered its GDP forecast to 2.8% from 3%. The central bank noted unemployment was a bit higher than a year ago and that inflation will fall "considerably short of the 2% inflation target for the time being, due mainly to the low oil prices." Four new members of the Bank of Korea's board will make their debuts at the May meeting. In a note released at the end of March, Morgan Stanley said, "Nominations of dovish BoK members increase the probability of near-term easing, in our view." The Korean won ended stronger by 1.2% at 1136.28.

German business confidence is on the rise. The April reading climbed to 11.2 from March's 4.3 and easily beat the 8.0 that was expected by the Bloomberg consensus. "Surprisingly positive economic news from China seem to have improved the sentiment amongst financial market experts," said Professor Sascha Steffen, head of the Research Department "International Finance and Financial Management" at ZEW. "On balance, however, the continued poor growth in China and other important emerging markets continues to be a burden for the German export industry." The euro is up 0.2% at 1.1333.

Silver is surging. Tuesday's 3% gain has the precious metal trading near $16.75 an ounce, its highest level in 10 months. The Financial Times quoted UBS analyst Joni Teves as saying, "It's a combination of silver getting a bit of attention over the past week with the big move in the gold/silver ratio and quite a few market participants looking at silver in and its relative performance to gold and thinking it might be time for a bit of catch up." Gold is higher by about 0.9% at $1243 an ounce.

Stock markets around the world are higher. Japan's Nikkei (+3.7%) led the gains in Asia and Germany's DAX (+2.2%) leads the advance in Europe. S&P 500 futures are higher by 9.25 points at 2095.75.